I went out this morning and harvested this nice little batch of strawberries. There are plenty more ripening for harvest in a few days and next week. Mmmmmm…..

Yesterday, I got a little garden work done, in between a bunch of other things. I finished spading and tilling up a former flowerbed on the south side of my house that is now a vegetable garden. It’s the spot where I planted the tomatoes and corn a few weeks ago. I planted the rest of my white Mirai corn seeds as well as some zucchini and pumpkins. I made mounds in the soil for the squashes — I’m not exactly sure why, but that’s how the seed packets recommend planting them, and it worked last year for the zucchini. Oh, and I planted a few more sunflower seeds, too. Henri Wilde variety. Same as the ones I planted a few weeks ago. By the way, I’m disappointed with the germination rate of the corn seeds. Of the 25-30 sown a few weeks ago, only about 12-15 are growing. I’ll have to look back at which mail order company I bought them from and consider a different supplier next time.

I meant to get some green beans planted, along with some so-called “winter squash” but I didn’t get to it. I still also need to plant the remaining flowers that are sitting in little pots. I have some new red Rudbeckias, Angelonias (never tried before), Belamcamda (blackberry lily), Verbenas, lavenders, a few Zinnias, and some lab-lab vines.  Ran out of time.

Here are some shots I took yesterday of flowers and things. The clematis vine is really getting close to peak bloom now. My two-year old son calls them the “big purple guys.” He’s a crack-up!

Starting from the top, going left-to-right in each row, these are: Clematis ‘Ville de Lyon’; ‘Nearly Wild’ Rose; a nice area of naturalized Shirley poppies by a Japanese Maple; ‘Stella d’Oro’ Daylily; Lamium or Spotted Deadnettle groundcover; ‘Yellow Simplicity’ Rose getting intertwined with a wild rose; pink California Poppies, descended from the ‘Summer Sorbet’ cultivar, but I don’t know how true their DNA is anymore; and one of my large wild rose shrubs — they’re in their brief spring bloom period right now.